InBlack wrote on Jan 11, 2013, 04:06:The real question is how much energy is needed to get a fracking operation up and running? Once they get it up and running how much natural gas can be extracted vs the energy put into the fracking process itself.

Basically what Im interested in is efficiency. Im guessing its a very unefficient operation but with the big oil involved they are going to push it for all its worth. (Burning Coal or Oil is also highly inneficient for example when compared to Nuclear or Natural Gas which is not extracted through fracking)

Actually, the reason fracking is so popular is because it's (relatively) incredibly cheap to do. They drill down a mile into a shale, then go two miles vertical, frack it, and release enormous amounts of natural gas.